The 10 best restaurants in Chinatown, Manchester

If you need a culinary lift to the spirits, the triple roasted meats at Happy Seasons in Chinatown will do the trick. This trio of char siu, crispy belly pork and roasted duck, served over egg fried rice, is one of the reasons you see queues out of the door at this Cantonese restaurant.

Cantonese and contemporary, with a relaxed feel and lots of reds and golds tucked away downstairs in otherwise bustling Chinatown, Little Yang Sing is also dim sum-tastic and has plenty more besides, including much for the plant-based palate along with a proper wine list.

Manchester Chinese Restaurant has a name that states the obvious but other than that, doesn’t give much away. Perhaps it’s keeping its thousand year old egg dish and the extra helpings of jellyfish a secret for fear of upsetting the punters.

There’s no need. Manchester Chinese Restaurant has a menu to keep both the sensation-hunters and the play-it-safers perfectly happy. After all, China is a big country and the restaurant aims to reflect all of its culinary heritage.

Mei Dim by name, dim sum by nature. If it’s the Cantonese version of small plates you’re after, look no further than this basement Chinatown establishment, where bite-sized brunch or lunch dishes in the form of dumplings and buns are proclaimed the best in Manchester.

This 2023 addition to George Street has already secured a place as one of the most popular restaurants in Chinatown. Spread across two floors, Only Yu is lively even at lunchtime, thanks to friendly service and well-executed Chinese food.

“The food speaks for itself,” says Cue Tran, owner of the Pho Cue Vietnamese kitchen, whose aim is to take the authentic street food dishes of his home country and give them a modern “Instagrammable” twist while retaining their flavour, freshness and family traditions.

Originally a Sichuan restaurant when it first opened at the turn of the century, Red Chilli on Manchester’s Portland Street has expanded its repertoire to offer Cantonese and Beijing-style dishes too.

It’s a good place for a celebration – Red Chilli is a bit plush and has some pedigree as well as a cracking wine list.

One of the longest-standing Japanese restaurants in Manchester, if not the North West, is Teppanyaki Chinatown. It’s been here since 1987 and was probably many Mancunian’s first experience of the Teppanyaki way of cooking – where the chef cooks your food in front of you on a hot iron griddle, so that the sounds and aromas of the sizzling ingredients are as much a part of the experience as the taste.

Up some steps and through a doorway flanked by two statuettes making the wai, and you’re welcomed into Try Thai, strong on liveliness, bright colours and cocktails, and the punchy flavours of Thailand, smack bang in the centre of Manchester’s Chinatown.

Yuzu is a neighbourhood-style Japanese restaurant offering refreshingly uncomplicated dishes served in Zen-like surroundings. You won’t find a conveyor belt of sushi here, but something altogether more traditional, such as spanking fresh sashimi.